A Dance of Embers
by All the Sky
Summary: Kiba rips open the curtains, jabbing his finger against the glass window at the fire that seemed to be raining from the heavens. Yet the flames do not make their way into the neighborhood – they shrivel into ashes just before striking a surface, flowering the land with a gray rain. Naruto stops breathing as he watches the embers dance across the bleeding sky.
1. He Who Fell From the Night

**(A/N): Wow, it's been years. I'm sitting here in my dorm, drowning away feelings and pouring everything into my fingertips. I don't even think my writing has stayed the same. It feels a bit choppy, but I would really appreciate if you guys would stick with me through this first chapter as I fall back into the hang of creative writing again. Research papers and formal proposals aren't as fun and they suck the soul right out of you.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

 **Chapter 1: He Who Fell From Night**

It is exactly 1:42 A.M., but he is not asleep. Almost, but not quite as he lays atop his tangerine bed, tanned arms folded neatly behind his head. It had been a tiring day at the infirmary; his grandmother seemed to be in need of his every possible assistance at every possible second. He'd spent all day at the place, filing patient paperwork and taking calls. It wasn't until after dinner that he had time to catch a few waves at the beach. He breathes in, noting the salty scent of the sea still floating from the surfboard in the corner of his room. A soft, muffled sound of a hiss climbs in through the window and licks at his eardrums. He yawns – alas, his eyes shut as sleep finally peeks into his conscience, and he pleasantly gives in to the pull.

"Naruto, get up!" His door is slammed open, the bronze knob digging itself into the bedroom wall with a loud thud. "Fuck, wake up!"

The blonde jerks out of bed, tossing aside his thick blanket. Seeing that it's only Kiba, he sits back, rubbing roughly at his eyes. He groans, "Goddamn, Inuzuka. I am _not_ in the mood. Who dumped you this time?"

The canine boy gapes at his friend, but quickly comes to with a shake of his head, "No, you don't understand. It's raining fire. _Fire_."

"Goodnight, Kiba." Naruto turns to lean back into his oh-so-comfortable bed, but is yanked up by the arm and dragged over to his window. "Ow –"

Kiba rips open the curtains, jabbing his finger against the glass at the fire that seemed to be raining from the heavens. _So that's where the hissing had come from_. Yet the flames do not make their way into the neighborhood – they shrivel into ashes just before striking a surface, flowering the land with a gray rain. The sky is bleeding ashes. Kiba looks pointedly at Naruto, who turns on him, "Where are my grandparents? Why didn't they wake – how the _hell_ did you get in here? Tell me I'm dreaming."

Naruto yelps as Kiba grabs the skin on his arm between his forefinger and thumb, and squeezes. "Dreaming now?" The brunette deadpans, "This is serious. They're outside. You'd better start packing – it's Code Red."

Code Red – meaning evacuation, meaning great danger, meaning that people may die, meaning that people _will_ die. Never before in Naruto's nineteen years of life has he ever had to execute the emergency procedures rehearsed since grade school. And so it leaves him only two choices: utter cluelessness or complete panic. He takes one side-eyed glance at the window and choses the first (simply because he is too tired to deal with the adrenaline of the second): utter cluelessness.

"Red… so I pack, right?" The blonde turns to his closet, retrieving a backpack and proceeding to stuff it with a spare change of clothes, his Gamakichi wallet, a first-aid kit (as grandson of a renown physician in Los Angeles, it would be a terrible shame to not carry one at all times), and his alarm clock.

Naruto can hear the screaming sirens before he even opens his front door. Somehow, in the three minutes between the first hiss of fire at his eardrums to the moment he clasps the doorknob with shaking fingers, the world has fallen into chaos. He cracks open the door, feeling mildly annoyed at the itch of Kiba's nervous breaths down his neck. He is just about to flip around to tell his friend to cut it out before a strong gust of searing wind slams the door against the wall. Behind him, picture frames fall from the walls and litter the tiles with shattered glass. A rainbow mosaic is reflected across his golden hair.

The fire had stopped burning out before hitting ground zero. His once-peaceful neighborhood is now covered in flames. The brightness of the fire claws at his retinas. Blue irises contract as he squints in pain. Some people are huddled together in front of their homes, but many are running, trying to dodge the drops of fire falling from the sky. The policemen scurry about, trying to herd families into areas deemed "safe" while the firemen aim their hoses straight into the night. He watches the water attack the fire and fill the neighborhood with steam, making it difficult to make out anything clearly.

"Go, _go_." Kiba urges, snapping him out of his reverie. Naruto stumbles forward, sloppily jogging to the "safe zone" with his friend on his heels. He scans his surroundings, taking in the scattered crowds of people. His blue eyes flash through faces, taking in the despair, fear, concern, worry. The shock of the brightness is wearing off and he can see his grandfather's white mane amongst a group of silhouettes. He spots a familiar face—his grandmother—in the same small circle of people. Normally, a collected group of individuals standing around in this situation would not be odd. But here, they are looking down, not up. Almost as if the raining flames weren't even there.

"Something's wrong," Naruto murmurs, jerking his chin in the general direction of the circle of people.

"No _shit_ ," Kiba cuffs him in the head, "I haven't noticed _at all_."

Naruto returns the hit, taking temporary pride in Kiba's wince, and jogs towards his grandparents, "They're all standing in a circle. Looking _down_ , not up. I'm going to check it out."

The blonde roughly shoves through two cops on his way over, earning himself a few yells. He slides between his grandparents, interrupting their seemingly urgent conversation, and freezes.

 _What?_

Naruto had briefly considered what the group was standing around before reaching them. A meteorite. Moon rocks. A fallen star. Burning bushes. But it's a _girl_. 

Just a girl, lying on her side, curled into herself. Her cropped ebony locks hide her face. Her bare skin is covered so thickly in ashes that Naruto doesn't notice her nakedness at first. Then as if suddenly awaken from a slumber, she uncurls from herself and props herself onto her arm, struggling to sit up. But everyone only stands there. No one moves. No one helps.

"What the _fuck_ , guys," Naruto huffs, taking a step.

"Naruto, wait—" His grandfather grabs his arm, but the blonde shakes himself out of the older man's grip before he can latch on. "Wait, kid!"

The blonde rushes forward, kneeling by the struggling figure. He reaches out, "Hey, are you—"

The girl suddenly flips up and slaps away the offered hand before jerking away, as if then expecting the blonde to return the hit. Some ash falls off her body, creating a billowing black wave following the twist of her arm. In the distance, flames still rain across the sky, but nothing hits this circle around her. It's only when she's fallen back onto her elbows, facing Naruto, that the blonde realizes she isn't a _she_. A quick glance slightly down south confirms his initial mistake.

His hand burns almost as much as his cheeks do as he takes in the lean body of the man before him. Hair darker than night. Cheekbones sharper than diamond. Eyes redder than blood. Cerulean eyes meet crimson ones in a piercing gaze.

Naruto opens his mouth to repeat his question, but the earth jerks suddenly and he stumbles. He thinks he feels a wetness dripping down his neck. _I'm so tired._

He falls forward into blackness.


	2. Awakening

(A/N): Thanks for reading that first chapter, everyone! All this actually came to me in a dream, and I just made some tweaks here and there. It's weird to try and put down a dream I had years ago into writing, but here goes. I also just realized that it's been 7 years since the last story I published and I'm feeling incredibly old.

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own Naruto. Hence, I am a pre-med in college, taking a typical route into society.

 **Chapter 2: Awakening**

There is blackness when Naruto wakes. He opens his eyes, but sees only darkness. _What's happening?_ He blinks once, twice, three times. It's no use. He's tired, so he sleeps.

When he awakens again, there is red. Crimson splotches dance across his retinas. Something pricks his arm, and then there is searing pain. He jerks forward and retches, but nothing leaves his system. Writhing, he slams his head back into something hard and goes limp. He sleeps.

The third time he is awake, it is black and he tries to open his mouth and scream. Liquid flows into his lungs. He chokes and tries to cough it out, but more flows in. _Swim. Swim away._ He swings his arms in strong strokes as if he were in the ocean, but only hits glass. He's drowning.

The next time he comes to, it is peaceful. His body is cushioned, numb. He opens his eyes, squinting at the brightness. Everything is white. He is laying on a bed, tucked underneath a white sheet. Slowly, he rolls over and slides out, somehow managing to land solidly on both feet.

"Finally awake, I see," a deep voice echoes through the room. Naruto startles, spinning around to find a young man in a white lab coat, ashen hair swept out of his face in a ponytail. The man's thin spectacles reflect the bright lights of the room, concealing his eyes. His eyebrows raise in careful delight, "I'll admit we've never observed recovery as fast as yours."

 _We?_ Naruto scowls. His chest hurts if he breathes too hard. "Where am I?"

A few memories come rushing back to him. The bleeding sky. The falling flames. The girl—no, the man with the red eyes. _What the hell happened?_ He takes a moment to survey his surroundings. They're standing in a small room, perhaps with a width of only ten steps, with a single bed against one wall. A small rectangular table sits on the other side with a chair pushed in. A pristine white toilet sits in one corner. White sheets, white walls, white table, white chair. He looks at his bare feet, wiggling his toes as he suddenly feels the coolness of the granite seep into him. White granite tiles. There are four walls, but he doesn't see a door. He raises his head and only finds four white LED lights fixed into the ceiling. He spots a camera in the corner of the room and frowns at it.

 _Deep breaths, Naruto. In._ He looks at himself, clad in a white shirt and white sweats. Clean, with no sign of ashes or grit. _Out._ He clenches his fist. _In_. And relaxes it. _Out_.

Left hand slightly trembling, the blonde raises his head to meet the curious gaze of the grey-haired man and repeats, "Where am I? Who are you?"

The man brushes at his crisp white coat nonchalantly and shrugs, "That's not important right now. First, I need you to move this."

Naruto stares dumbly at the man as he draws a glass orb from his lab coat and sets it on the table. The blonde steps forward and reaches out to push—

"No, not like that."

"You told me to move it."

"Yes, move it, but don't touch it."

Frustrated, Naruto jerks up one corner of the table, watching as the ball falls to the tile and shatters. The grey-haired man shakes his head as he retrieves another orb and sets it down on the table again.

"Move it, but don't touch."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

The blonde fixes a wide-eyed stare at the man in front of him. _What in the hell does he want?_ He feels his heartbeat rise. _Calm down, Naruto. Breath in, out. In and out._ His hands tremble. He tries to stay in place, but that's always been hard for him.

"Move the orb," the grey-haired man repeats, stepping back from the table, closer to the blonde.

 _Breathe. Breathe._ But it's too much. He's stuck in a closed room with a crazed man with no answers. Fire. His grandparents. His neighbors. Kiba. The police. _Where is everyone?_ His breathing becomes rapid, chest heaving with pain and labored breaths.

" _You're insane._ " Naruto lunges for the man, toppling both of them to the ground. He lands on top, one fist grasping the collar of the lab coat and the other in the air, yearning to break the man's crooked spectacles. He brings his fist down. " _Fucking insane_."

Before his fist makes contact, the wall to his right opens. Three men shuffle in, and one aims his weapon at the blonde. His finger presses the trigger.

A single click is all Naruto hears before his world falls to darkness once again.

"You couldn't fix them more?"

"They'll serve as a reminder not to disobey orders."

"He fell in the glass."

"While trying to hurt me."

"He looks like he has whiskers."

"I think they're a nice touch."

A huff.

"What? If you didn't like them, you should have fixed him yourself."

Naruto slowly lifts his lashes, blinking a few times as his eyes adjust to the harsh light. Two men stand at the foot of his bed, both clad in white lab coats. He recognizes the grey-haired man from earlier, and catches a slight hint of amusement in his dark eyes. The other man wears a patterned orange mask over his face. A red eye glints down at the blonde from the single hole. It briefly reminds him of the man with the red eyes. Naruto tries to sit up, but finds himself restrained to the bed with bands strapped across his arms and legs. He struggles against his bonds, "Let me go! What the hell do you all want?"

"We need you to move the orb," the masked man's deep voice resonates in the room. There's something about him that makes Naruto grow cold.

"I can't move the stupid thing with my _mind_ , you crazy bastards," Naruto spits. "I need answers."

"Well," the grey-haired man raised an eyebrow, "you wouldn't be using your mind, so to speak."

"Use chakra," says the masked man.

"Use _what_?" Naruto strains against his bonds. "Who are you guys? _Where am I_?"

"He's uncooperative," the masked man turns around. "Kabuto, take me to see if the others have progressed. We'll deal with him later."

"Others?" Naruto thrashes on the bed, losing his composure again. "What have you done to my friends?"

The two men are already on their way to the exit. The masked man presses his palm against the wall across Naruto's bed, where a lighted outline of his hand appears next to an outline of the door. A part of the wall slides open.

"Wait!" He yells, "Don't touch them!"

The masked man doesn't stop walking as he replies, "A bit late for that, aren't we?"

Naruto freezes, "You son of a—"

There is a pressure deep in his chest. It builds and spreads into his abdomen, into his legs and arms and fingers and toes. Then it seems to flow out of his body in a gush of relief. Suddenly the room is engulfed in wind. It pushes the glass orb off the table. Kabuto, who had felt the gust of wind in his hair, flips around and catches the sphere in his hand before it touches the floor.

Naruto stiffens, finding himself suddenly exhausted. He pants, "What just happened?"

"You used chakra," the grey-haired man straightens up with a satisfied show of teeth. "Well done."

"Wind chakra," the masked man murmurs thoughtfully to himself.

"I need explanations," the blonde says, looking the masked man straight in the eye.

The man sighs, "This one's persistent, isn't he?"

"In the beginning, they all are," says Kabuto.

"I will give him a few words," says the masked man. "You may leave."

"Yes, sir."

Naruto watches as Kabuto leaves through the open door in the wall, noting the fact that the door does not shut until someone exits the room, or perhaps by command. He turns his eyes back to the masked man, who drags the chair from the table over to sit by his bedside. Ruffled black hair peeks out from above the mask. A single crimson eye fixes on him. Naruto wiggles a bit under his bonds, unsettled by the strong gaze.

"Are you the man from that night? When it rained fire?" Naruto asks.

The masked man chuckles, "No. Let's forget that for now." He bends forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together, leaning closer to Naruto. "You are at the Tsukuyomi Corporation, sponsored by the U.S. government. Our scientists have been working incredibly hard, and have been able to awaken your chakra. It was a long and painful process, though I am sure you cannot remember very much."

The blonde stares at him dumbly. He mildly remembers waking up to darkness or pain, but it was all a blur.

"The incident a few moments ago is a result of the release of your chakra. We have people who will help you master it here. In short, the world is in chaos, and we need you to save it."

Naruto nods once, then twice before shaking his head violently, "Look here, Mask Man, I didn't sign up for this and I really _really_ just want to go home. The world was fine to me. Just let me go."

 _But not really, was it? Remember the fire? The fear in everyone's eyes? The chaos?_

The man shakes his head, unkempt hair sway side to side as he speaks, "You are naïve, Naruto. You come from a wealthy background—practically grew up encased in gold. You had everything you could have ever wanted. There is still much you do not understand."

"Then, why me?"

"It was not my choice," the man stands up.

Naruto panics, "What about my friends?"

"They're doing fine."

"You're expecting me to trust your word, just like that? After everything you did to me? _Fuck you_." Naruto begins to struggle underneath his bonds.

"You don't have any other choice," the man pulls out a dagger, its edge gleaming in the light. He bends over the blonde, who looks him dead in the eye while still angrily jerking against the bed, and with two clean swipes, cuts the straps. "I hope you will cooperate with us."

Naruto stills, slowly sitting up as he watches the man open the door in the wall and exit the room. He rubs at his irritated skin and sighs quietly.

The blonde decides to cooperate with the Tsukuyomi Corporation. After all, if his own government sponsored it, there must be a good reason. For the next two weeks, he spends each day improving his skill with a number of Tsukuyomi workers. He learns that there are different elements to chakra, and that different hand signs "unlock" different modes of his specific chakra. His personal chakra affinity is wind, though it is possible to carry two affinities. There are a total of five affinities, which includes air, fire, water, lightning, and earth.

In the mornings, a breakfast tray containing eggs, oatmeal, and water are dropped on the table. After the blonde eats, a tutor visits him for one hour and educates him about different mastering techniques. He tends to sleep through most of those, to the tutor's disappointment. Kabuto comes in after that to make Naruto push a few glass orbs around. The blonde learns to focus his chakra to specific locations and to aim. A physical examination follows this, and lunch is served. After he eats, he goes back to harnessing his chakra through more experiments. Sometimes, the masked man watches. Other times, there are pulse stickers placed onto his body as he releases focused chakra. He learns to move the orbs a specific distance, to cut paper with a flick of his finger, to shoot a clean hole through cardboard. When he is able to slice a cylindrical piece of wood in half with just his chakra, the masked man returns to speak to the blonde.

"You have done well. Your progress is impeccable and your skills continue to grow," says the masked man. "However, you are also in dire need of a shower."

Naruto looks at himself. _Hell, I can't remember the last time I showered._ He risks a sniff at his armpit, and takes a few quick steps back at the smell. _Oh God._

The door in the wall opens, and for the first time since he had arrived, he is allowed to leave his room. Naruto steps out and is greeted by four security members, clad in white with a large rifle-like weapon strapped onto each. He frowns slightly, but accepts this.

The blonde is escorted through clean, white hallways lined with doors. He takes note of the symbols on each door, seeing that his own is of a circular swirl. _I wonder how many rooms there are. Who is on the other side of these doors?_ He sees some of the other symbols—a circle, a fan, a swirl of smoke. The shower is at the end of the hallway, past a pair of doors. Then, a sign for males and females. Naruto is taken to the one designated for males.

The escorts remain outside, in the hallway. Despite this, Naruto frowns at the lack of privacy in the shower area. Between each shower head is a small divider, not enough to truly create a cubicle. He shrugs, realizing that at this point, he would rather go skinny dipping with Kabuto than wallow in his own stink for another day.

He eyes the room, seeing that there are showers lined along one wall, each one carrying soap. Across from them sit a stack of clean robes on a table. The rectangular opening in the wall next to the table is perhaps the laundry chute. The blonde takes a deep sigh, and strips.

The first blast of hot water is heaven. Sighing, Naruto turns his face into the stream as he lathers his hair with the soap provided. It may not be the luxury Bvlgari shampoo he was used to, but it would still do its job. He silently mourns his shiny, golden locks as he massages his sore muscles.

He stands under the heated stream for over an hour. He is so indulged in this shower that he does not hear the door open, does not hear the soft _pat pat pat_ of another person entering the room. He completely misses the sounds of another shower, a few dividers down, turning on and then off about 20 minutes later.

Naruto sighs happily as he decides that the shower had gone on long enough. He turns off the stream, shaking his head like a dog to get rid of excess water, and turns around to retrieve a clean robe from the table across the room. That's when he notices the other man in the room, standing in a white robe with his back to him.

Outside of his daily training routine, the blonde has not interacted with anyone else in over two weeks. He _craved_ normal—or as normal as he could find in the corporation—interactions with normal people. Normal hello's and normal goodbye's and normal laugh's and normal slaps on the back.

"Hi," Naruto says loudly, sparing an awkward wave. "I'm Naruto."

The man turns around at the greeting, and the blonde drops his arm mid-wave when their eyes meet. There's no mistake. Long, dark hair falls around a delicately angled face. Thin eyebrows frame beautiful, ebony eyes. His pupils are not crimson this time, but the piercing gaze is the same nonetheless.

Naruto swallows nervously as the man crosses his arms over his chest and nods in greeting, "Sasuke."


	3. Hues of Twilight

(A/N): Hope y'all are enjoying everything so far. I'm still trying to work on finding a pace and a voice, but I don't know how that's reflecting across to you guys so far. School's been incredibly busy, and as the semester picks up, the pace is as well. Thank you for reading, and to those who leave reviews, I am eternally grateful. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 3: Hues of Twilight

"You—it's you," Naruto stutters, forgetting his nakedness.

Sasuke shifts his weight to his right leg, the white robe draped over his body sliding with his movement to reveal a toned chest. There is no recognition in his eyes as he replies. "Yes?"

"Did they take you too?"

The raven-haired man arches an eyebrow, "I'm sorry?"

"The last time I saw you, you were covered in ashes," the blonde waves his arm over his body. "And your eyes were so red, and fire was falling from the sky."

"I don't know what you're talking about," snaps Sasuke, who turns abruptly and starts walking toward the exit. Flustered, Naruto leaps for the man. _I need answers._

He barely touches Sasuke before he is flipped over and slammed into the cold tiles. He grunts in pain, squinted eyes watering as his head painfully bounces off the ground. For a brief moment, black splotches paint his sight. " _Ow_ , that fucking hurt, you bastard!"

Naruto swings a fist aimed for the raven's head, but the other boy is faster—he grabs his arm and slams it above the blonde's head. Sasuke smirks, "Moron."

The raven is faster than the blonde, but he is also much leaner. Naruto, with years of swimming and surfing under his belt, had built up strength over his time on the sandy beaches of Southern California. He bucks up into Sasuke, catching the other boy off-guard, and flips them over. He laughs heartily, tucking his chin into his heaving chest, golden locks poking into the raven's eyes, "At least my hair doesn't look like a duck's ass."

The raven opens his mouth, flustered, "My hair does _not_ look like—"

"Why does everyone here ignore my questions? Look," Naruto interrupts, face growing serious. His voice is steady, calm when he speaks again, "I really just need some answers. I've done everything everyone asked me to. I just need to know what happened to my home."

For a second, the blonde thinks he sees a twinge of sadness in those ebony eyes, a brief upward curve of those delicate eyebrows. There is a flash of recognition, of understanding. For a second, the raven isn't looking into those blues eyes, but beyond them, seeing something Naruto cannot. The shine in his eyes reminds him of stars against a night sky. In the back of his mind, Naruto briefly remembers how he loved to watch the stars at night as a boy. He never saw many from within the city, but the one or two that reached his pupils always fascinated him. Then the moment goes by, and the armor returns. The stars disappear. Sasuke fixes a steel glare at the boy, "Get the hell off me."

The blonde relents, raising himself off the other boy and turns to grab a clean robe off the table. He slips it on, hearing the soft pats of Sasuke exiting the room. Before he leaves, however, Naruto calls out to him, "Sasuke, we've met before."

He is once again greeted by the four escorts when he exits the shower room a few minutes after the raven had left. On his way back to his room, he eyes the trail of water droplets in front of him, remembering the other boy's dripping dark hair, and notes that it leads to the door with a fan on it. _Sasuke's room_. It's only two doors down from his own room. He doesn't see any other escorts nearby—perhaps the other boy doesn't have any. He briefly wonders why.

One of his escorts opens the door to his room, and as the blonde walks in, says, "There's a new set of clothing on your bed. Please change and meet us promptly for group training."

He wants to ask about the training, but knows he will not be given any answers until he arrives. Quickly, he shrugs off his robe and throws on the new clothes. White shirt, white pants, white boxers. He misses his embarrassing past of blacks and oranges.

He is escorted down the hall and into an elevator. His escort presses _4_ , and he feels the familiar lightness when the elevator begins to move. They're heading down.

The door slides open into a large room. The blonde gasps, taking in the sparring mats, punching bags, _katanas_ , throwing knives, bows and arrows. It is _beautiful_ —until he sees the two tall men in the corner, both clad in deep green leotards. _Or jumpsuits?_ He decides that they're a bit tighter than he would like.

"Shit, I don't have to wear _that_ , do I?" His voice cuts through the silence and the two men turn around, looking a bit too similar for comfort.

"Hello there!" The taller man jumps forward, his thick eyebrows wiggling in excitement at the new recruitment. "Welcome to the _taijutsu_ station! The name's Guy."

Naruto looks at the extended hand, and laughs, clasping it in a firm handshake, "I'm Naruto."

The younger version of Guy bounces forward, eyebrows equally as thick. His smile nearly blinds the blonde. He throws out a hand, "My name is Lee. I'm your sparring partner. It's very nice to meet you!"

The blonde takes his hand, and finds his arm being shaken up and down much faster than he expected. Lee's straight-cut hair bobs slightly with the movement. Aside from the body-hugging jumpsuits and the wiggling eyebrows, Naruto decides they're pretty much harmless.

He decided a little too early. Four seconds into his first match, Lee has the blonde curled into himself, wincing from a quick kick to the gut.

"Oh, come _on_ , blondie. Embrace your youth, and fight!" Guy yells from the corner of the sparring mat.

The blonde straightens up and charges towards his opponent—only to find himself falling back from a hit to the jaw. He barely recovers before a strike at the neck has him slamming his shoulder into the mat. He doesn't enjoy being beaten twice in one day.

"Alright, that's enough," Guy explains, clapping to himself. "Seems like you don't have much sparring experience. But don't give up just yet! You take a quick water break as I set up for the next round."

Lee takes a somewhat sullen Naruto to the water fountain on the other side of the room. For a room so large, it's quite empty. The blonde begins to wonder. "Where are you from?"

The other boy turns his head around to look at Naruto, his jet black hair glistening under the harsh lights. The blonde briefly wonders what shampoo he uses. Lee smiles, "I'm from Guy."

At Naruto's obvious gawk, he chuckles and adds, "I don't think I've ever had parents—can't remember them at all. My earliest memory was of running into Guy as he was training at a studio. He just had so much energy and the art looked so _beautiful_. I had to learn, so I asked him and he said yes. I think I was five, but for some reason, I can't remember anything before that. There wasn't much to my life. But Guy accepted me, and we trained together. He taught courses at the studio, and he kind of took me in. Later, he got the job here, to train people like you, and I came along."

"People like me?" He frowns.

"You guys are important. You'll see," Lee smiles reassuringly.

He nods slowly, unsure. _If Guy trains everyone here, then that means_ — "Hey, do you know a Sasuke, by any chance?"

Naruto watches as the other boy sits up. He nods, "I do, actually. He's incredibly talented. A prodigy, I've heard. He's better at sparring than I am, and that's not easy to come by."

The blonde hums, taking in this information. Then something dawns on him. "Do you know anyone named Kiba, here?"

The other boy turns to walk back to the sparring mats, but shakes his head. "But we don't meet the newest recruits until they're ready." Naruto's pulse races. Kiba would have been taken in at the same time as he was, so if he was already sparring, Lee would have known. He's relieved, but also slightly disappointed. It would have been nice to have someone from home here. He shakes his head, clearing the thought. _No. There was so much pain. Too many secrets. He's doing what he's told to do, but he doesn't have a choice._

Guy and Lee spend the next two hours teaching Naruto the basics of what they call _taijutsu_. The blonde cannot remember the names of any of the moves they teach him, and he completely zones out when they try to explain the logistics of any one strike or block. But his body does him well, and he quickly learns the physical movements. Muscle memory was always his strength.

"Undercut!" Guy yells from the edge of the mat as Lee charges towards the blond. "Block the move and frontal kick to the abdomen!"

But Naruto has no idea what his instructor is saying. The words swirl around in his head and fall out his ear when the edge of Lee's hand meets the side of a blonde head. He quickly recovers, and throws the base of his palm into his opponent's elbow. Lee takes a breath at the hit, and the blonde takes this second to spin back to deliver a roundhouse kick to his side. The other man flips and counters it with his other arm, "Wasn't what Guy wanted, but nice moves."

The blonde pants, chest heaving, and laughs, "I didn't understand a word he said."

For the next two weeks, daily _taijutsu_ sessions followed by hot showers are implemented into his schedule of _ninjutsu_ practice and fitness exams. He learns that sparring comes to him naturally, and the quick reflexes he's had from spending a lifetime navigating waves at a beach have returned to help him. Sometimes, he finds himself loitering outside the door with the fan symbol, hoping to run into a particular man with particular answers to his particular questions. He has no such luck. The masked man visits every so often to check up on his progress, and leaves delighted that he is passing with flying colors. There is no shortage of needles or blood-drawing, but the blonde finds comfort in the company of Guy and Lee. Their energy helps him ignore the screams of his overworked muscles.

He is drinking water at the fountain in the _taijutsu_ room when he hears a quick whistle in his left ear as a sharp dagger soars through the air to bury itself in the wall by his head. He yells, startled, and chokes halfway through his swallow. Tears blur his vision as he hacks the excess liquid from his lungs, but he makes out a slim figure from across the room. Not Lee this time. More feminine. A girl.

He stops choking after a good minute, and raises his head angrily, "What the hell?"

Laughter fills the air like morning bells. The blonde's vision clears enough to make out a girl who keeps her dark hair in two buns on each side of her head. She raises a hand, tilting her head to the side apologetically, "Lee told me to introduce myself. I'm Tenten."

"Lee told you not to kill him," a lower voice says from the other side of the room. Naruto looks over to see another unfamiliar figure, with hair spilling over shoulders in a dark waterfall, standing next to his eyebrow-blessed friend. At first he thinks it's another girl, but the broad shoulders and strong jaw tell him otherwise.

Tenten laughs again, her voice bright enough to paint a spring flower, and shakes her head, "Wasn't planning on it."

The long-haired man nods his head at the blonde, "I'm Neji. It's nice to meet you."

Lee scratches the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed for the commotion, "They're going to be your new _taijutsu_ partners."

Naruto finds it exciting to spar with new partners. He had gotten used to Lee's antics, and it was refreshing to learn the unique habits of others. Tenten isn't the best with one-on-one combat, but her skill with weaponry is impeccable. She never misses a target, be it with throwing knives or archery. Guy leads the blonde through a new exercise of dodging the weapons that Tenten whips at him. He isn't the best at it, and escapes with bleeding cuts sketched into his skin. If he hadn't deflected a few knives with his chakra, he is sure there would be a dagger through his eye. Neji, on the other hand, spars in a beautiful dance, delivering the faintest touches but leaving the nastiest bruises. The blonde cannot fathom how the lightest caress of two fingers against his skin can break so many blood vessels.

He sleeps well that night, exhausted from the excursion but content with his new friends. His bruises paint a twilight across the canvas of his skin.


End file.
